Joel haywood tatum



UNITED STATES PATET OFFICE.

JOEL HAYOOD TATUM, OF NEW' YORK, N. Y.

CANDLE-WICK.

Specfication of Letters Patent No. 29,729, dated August 21, 1860.

To aZZ whom it 'may concem:

Be it known that. I, JonL H. TATUM, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Plaited VVick for Candles; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact clescription of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- F igures 1 and 2 are opposite side views of a piece of my wick. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the same. Fig. 4 is a side view of a piece of differently braided wick represented for the sake of comparison. Fig. 5 is a transverse section corresponding with Fig. 4. Fgs. 6 and 7 are diagrams illustrative of the different modes of braiding the two kinds of wick represented.

My invention consists in a plaited wick composed of five (5) strands so arranged that the strands on either side of the wick run from both edges toward the center in an upward direction or from the center toward both edges in an upward direction according to which end of the wick is directed upward.

The arrangement of the strands in my improved wick is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, but more clistinctly in Fig. 1, where the strands are clearly shown running frompthe center upward toward both sides, but in the same wiek when inverted the strands run from both Sides upward toward the center as may be seen by inverting the drawing. By reference to F ig. 4 which represents that side of the other wick corresponding with the side of my wick shown in Fig. 1, it will be seen that the strands run upward from one edge toward the center and downward from the other edge toward the center. That wick consists of an ordinary five plait braid as made by all the braiding machines which after much searching I was able to discover in use at the time of the invention of my improved wick, and though it possesses in a high degree the necessary capillarity or power of conveying the melted material of the candle to the fiame, is practically worthless as a candle wick, owing to its not being capable of standing up stifliy enough in the candle but falling down without any regularity of bend while my improved wick slightly as it may appear to difi'er will stand up as high as is desirable and turn over uniformly, as the strands at the two edges brace and support each other as in a three plait wick, and in this respect is equal to the best three strand plaited wick while it possesses the advantage of a more cellular structure and greater degree of capillarity.

To make my improved wick I construct the braiding machine as illustrated by the diagram Fig. 5, with four rotary carriers a, a, a', ct', instead of as illustrated by the cliagram Fig. 6, with three only, which is the number commonly employed for braiding five strands and I gear the several carriers to rotate in the directions indicated upon them by arrows, the two outer carriers a', a', rotating in opposite directions and thereby causing the arrangement of the strands at opposite edges of the braid as shown in Fig. 1. In the machine with three carriers it is impossible to gear the carriers otherwise than so that the two outer ones rotate in similar directions which causes the arrangement of 'the strands at the edges of the braid as shown in Fig. 4.

I prefer generally to make my improved l wick as nearly as possible of semi-tubular form as shown in Fig. 3,Which may be regulated by a proper arrangement of the tube at the mouth of which the strands are braidcd together, as will be well understood by persons familiar with braiding machinery.

I arrange my improved wick in the candles with the strands running upward from or upward toward the center of the concave side of the wick represented in Fig. l, according to the nature of the material of which the candles are composed. In candles of soft or very easily melted material I arrange it with the strands running upward from the center as shown in Fig. 1, in which arrangement it turns over toward the conveX side and does not turn so short or so near the body of the candle; but, in candles of harder and less fusible materials I arrange it in the reverse direction that is to say with the strands running upward toward the center, in which arrangement it turns over toward the flat 01' concave Side edges toward the center in an upward diand turns shorter or Closer to the body of rection or from the center toward both edges 10 the Candle. in an upward dreetion as heren descrbed.

VVhat I claim as my inventon and desre T 5 to secure by Letters Patent is:- JOL HAX 700D TATUM' The plated Wiek for candles composed of /Vtnesses: five strands so arranged that the strnds B. GIROUXE,

on either side of the wiek run from both M. M. LIVINGSTON. 

